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What are you reading? (March 2010)
- Thread starter FnordChan
- Start date
HamPster PamPster
Member
Yay! A Conspiracy of Kings came out a few days ago and I'll be picking it up tonight. Its the 4th book in Megan Turners series about Gen (The Thief, The Queen of Attolia, The King of Attolia, and now A Conspiracy of Kings ) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Conspiracy_of_Kings)
Probably my favorite series of books. Its been 4 years since the last one so I hope its good!
Probably my favorite series of books. Its been 4 years since the last one so I hope its good!
NotTheGuyYouKill
Member
This one's actually really good so far.
sparky2112
Member
eznark said:
Agreed. Interesting idea, rotten execution. If you're going to bill yourself as a 'computer expert', you have to do more than throw around the names of a few protocols and actually have a plot that is at least feasible. The videogame stuff in the first book is just laughable.
ItAintEasyBeinCheesy
it's 4th of July in my asshole
If anyone wants to get an easy signed copy of The Deser Spear by Peter V Brett check out his blog
http://www.petervbrett.com/2010/03/26/signed-bookplates/
Well not really a signed book but a signed Book Plate which you can then stick into your copy of the book
http://www.petervbrett.com/2010/03/26/signed-bookplates/
Well not really a signed book but a signed Book Plate which you can then stick into your copy of the book
MehsterChief
Member
I just finished the first book, All The Pretty Horses. Amazing. I love McCarthy's prose,it really is similar to Hemingway. Will start The Crossing today, heard it's even better.
Tim the Wiz
Banned
This isn't really about reading. During my usual travail of the local bookstore's "literary" shelves - which, by the way, holds no McCarthys or Pynchons beyond a scraping of their latest works, and absolutely nothing written by Michael Chabon - I saw the last copy of this book sitting astride Poe's collected works:
And I couldn't walk by. I've read the book several times, growing up and quite recently too, and it's one of my all-time favourites due to its timeless charm and message, but I've never owned it. This actually bothered me to the point that I bought it there and then. Not to read, but just to own. Anyone else bought a book simply for the sake of owning it?
And I couldn't walk by. I've read the book several times, growing up and quite recently too, and it's one of my all-time favourites due to its timeless charm and message, but I've never owned it. This actually bothered me to the point that I bought it there and then. Not to read, but just to own. Anyone else bought a book simply for the sake of owning it?
Tim the Wiz said:
I can't see the problem, I'm afraid.
As for buying books simply to own them, Webster's Visual Dictionary.
http://www.quercuspress.com/webster_vimeo_video.htm
Tim the Wiz
Banned
Salazar said:
Heh, care to expand on that?
Tim the Wiz said:
Not an admirer of the authors you mention. At least, I don't think their absence from a bookstore's shelves makes it a deficient store. The fact that bookstores are now dedicating sections and vast stretches of shelving exclusively to insipid vampire pseudo-erotica bugs me more.
Tim the Wiz
Banned
Salazar said:
Not even Chabon?
No, fair enough. I think the reason they weren't there is primarily because most books sold in Australia are imported from Britain or so I assume. And I won't disagree with you on the disturbing, growing trend of Twilight-inspired faux-Gothic melodramas occupying more space in bookstores.Freeza Under The Shower
Member
Kawaii said:
First three stories are the finest pieces of dutch literature, offcourse.
(Uitvreter, Titaantjes, Dichtertje)
ik ken ze geen van allen.
ItAintEasyBeinCheesy
it's 4th of July in my asshole
Finished, good stuff!
Tim the Wiz said:
I buy from Amazon (Kindle), Bookdepository.co.uk, or second-hand bookstores on the Gold Coast and in Brisbane. And Berkelouw's in Eumundi. That more or less accounts for the spread of my purchases. The regular bookstores in Australia are having a sustained, harsh fucking laugh with their pricing: Borders, Dymocks, Angus & Robertson could close and I would shed not a millilitre of tears. Except for the facility Borders provides as an air-conditioned place to sit and flip through magazines, coffee table art and photography books, and magazines.
ItAintEasyBeinCheesy
it's 4th of July in my asshole
The new bookdepository.com site is cheaper than the .co.uk site and still has free shipping.
ItAintEasyBeinCheesy
it's 4th of July in my asshole
No one knows, could be this year but i wouldn't get your hopes up. If you haven't read The Warded/Painted Man it worth a look, sequel will be out next month as well.
NotTheGuyYouKill
Member
I finished Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Pretty good book. The ending seemed a little predicable, but the book was well-written, and I really liked it.
I began this one yesterday:
It's a sequel to Patient Zero, which was a novel about... terrorist zombies. Pretty good stuff, I'm liking this book so far (I really liked PZ as well). Joe Ledger's on the trail of Nazis and crazed terrorists armed with some sort of genetic biological mutation technology or... something. Still awesome.
On a side note, can anyone recommend me any good science fiction horror novels in the vein of Alien, Event Horizon, or Dead Space? Or maybe something similar to the show Fringe? I'm having a hard time finding good science fiction horror for some reason.
I began this one yesterday:
It's a sequel to Patient Zero, which was a novel about... terrorist zombies. Pretty good stuff, I'm liking this book so far (I really liked PZ as well). Joe Ledger's on the trail of Nazis and crazed terrorists armed with some sort of genetic biological mutation technology or... something. Still awesome.
On a side note, can anyone recommend me any good science fiction horror novels in the vein of Alien, Event Horizon, or Dead Space? Or maybe something similar to the show Fringe? I'm having a hard time finding good science fiction horror for some reason.
Touchdown said:
Just finished American Gods, also by Neil Gaiman which I thought was really dull and boring for the first 300 pages or so but then it redeemed itself toward the end. I'm only on the third chapter of Neverwhere and to me it's already 10x better than American Gods.
It really is. In fact, I would say that Neverwhere is his best novel.
movie_club
Junior Member
amazing so far
movie_club
Junior Member
just read this recently, excellentNorwegian Wood said:
I'm loving it So far
finowns said:
Mein gott, no. I bought the trade hardback, which is still a gorgeously put-together book. It is, however, not a book I can read; I have no use for the book save for flipping through it and smiling at its oddities. Were it not so thoughtfully organised and superbly printed, I would never have considered buying it.
My upper limit is about $150 Australian. Beyond that, it would have to be a book I absolutely need for academic purposes, a genuinely rare book, or a terrific edition of something I know to be incomparably good (Shakespeare, Tolkien, Milton, Mencken).
Calvin Trillin's 'Alice, Let's Eat' is delightful. Really very dry.
Lafiel said:Finished "Consider Phlebas" by Iain M Banks, a few days ago, good stuff. But the last 1/4 of it, wasn't as good as the first 3/4. Looking forward to reading "player of games" next, which i hear is better.
Now reading
100 pages read so far.
Everybody loves this book, and I have no idea why. I still have the next two books on my shelf. I feel obligated to read through them, but I am just not interested at all. Ugh.
Rabbit Lord
Member
Salazar said:
I read this and now I can't stop vomiting.
As for what I am currently reading...
Enjoyed the HBO adaption so I picked up the book recently.
Finished this, pretty meh. Wasn't expecting Shakespeare or anything, but still meh.
Was going to start this next on a friend's recommendation. Anyone here read this before? Have an opinion on it? I'm a bit hesitant and I have tons of other things to read right now. Wondering if this is worth my time or not...
READ THIS BOOK.
Vikar has Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor from A Place in the Sun tattooed on his head. While getting lunch, some dude mistakes the two for James Dean and Natalie Wood and Vikar slams his lunch tray upside the guy's head. THIS IS ON PAGE TWO.
It's an incredible book about dreams, movies, and the place where the two intersect. READ IT.
Monocle
Member
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King
Excellent book. I recommend it to all of you. The easy, conversational quality of King's prose makes reading this book like having a long talk with a good friend. And the writing advice King dispenses is invaluable.
Edit:
The series is moderately entertaining until a little more than halfway through, when the authors' agenda becomes really overt. I've read worse, but trust me, when the preaching starts it's difficult to stay interested.Ryu said:
Was going to start this next on a friend's recommendation. Anyone here read this before? Have an opinion on it? I'm a bit hesitant and I have tons of other things to read right now. Wondering if this is worth my time or not...
Jedeye Sniv
Banned
Ryu said:
Finished this, pretty meh. Wasn't expecting Shakespeare or anything, but still meh.
:lol :lol :lol
You know it's gonna be rough when Tom Clancy's name is bigger than the author's. Dude is so rich now he doesn't even need to write his own books. Video game tie ins are always a gamble anyway - speaking of which I shall be starting the Dragon Age books shortly, making them the first fantasy books I shall have read. Maybe not the best start to the genre but at least I'll care about the universe a little.
Monocle
Member
Uh-oh. If those kill your appetite for fantasy, just be sure to read Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun series before you quit the genre.Jedeye Sniv said:
I strongly recommend the Pevear & Volokhonsky translation of Crime and Punishment. It is elegant where the Garnett translation (available for free online, by the way) is awkward. I can't claim to have read through both editions, but based on scattered comparisons I'm confident my opinion is accurate.Pappasman said:
An example from the first several pages:
Of course, being translations of the same work, the two versions can be quite similar. But there still I favor Pevear & Volokhonsky:
Jedeye Sniv
Banned
Monocle said:
I'm definitely a bit weary of fantasy but I'm giving DA the benefit of the doubt since I've been really impressed with the quality of Bioware's Mass Effect stuff, and I think getting the game's writer on board gives it an authenticity it wouldn't otherwise have. Usually though I find fantasy a bit boring, and I find the fashion to have numerous massive books in a series to be very off putting. Even that Song of Fire and Ice that everyone loves sounds like too much work to be fun (and this is coming from somebody whose favourite books include Illuminatus! and Foucoult's Pendulum...).
Fingers crossed!
EDIT: actually, the synopsis for that Wilde book sounds awesome, very similar to Nightwings which I read recently. I'll add it to my list I think.
You're surprised that a ghostwritten 'Tom Clancy's' book based on a video game is bad? Aim higher.Ryu said:
And Left Behind is fearmongering, propagandistic, small-minded garbage... Don't waste your time. Not to mention that my friends who like it still complained that they stretched the series out way too long. It's a racket designed to get you to buy as many books as possible to support LaHaye and Jenkins.
His Dark Materials is just a trilogy, with a cogent beginning, middle and end. (P.S. I tried reading The Golden Compass and didn't particularly enjoy it, FYI.)eznark said:
Left Behind, from what people told me, got to a point when each book contained extremely little development in the plot, or failed to deliver on resolution of plot points from previous books. In other words, it was like LaHaye and Jenkins were stringing their faithful readers along in order to sell more books, knowing that they'd buy whatever was published under the "Left Behind" name. (Like you, I also have not read it and my opinion is based on what nearly everybody I know who read the books told me.)
Of course there are many authors who do this, I just find it distasteful when it's done in the name of religion, and to support what I regard as a ministry of apocalyptic fearmongering.
I finished up Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World a few days ago and I enjoyed it quite a bit. But really, I don't exactly have a legitimate frame of reference at this point.
Rather than going with back-to-back Murakami, I decided to take a bit of a break with this:
I'm only a couple chapters in, but so far so good. It's definitely an interesting read while I'm smack in the middle of playing Yakuza 3.
Rather than going with back-to-back Murakami, I decided to take a bit of a break with this:
I'm only a couple chapters in, but so far so good. It's definitely an interesting read while I'm smack in the middle of playing Yakuza 3.
Like I said I haven't read either of them but my that is my impression of both. Seems obvious in Left Behind and I still don't know anyone who has read past the first book of the dark materials series, and all (three or four, not exactly a huge number here, none religious) cite proselytizing as the reason they gave up.KingGondo said:
Has anyone read Union Atlantic or The Manual of Detection? One of those is going to be next, not sure which.
